318 PROVISION or BORROWING FACILITIES. 



circumstances of the candidate by the directors or committee of 

 supervision. As candidates are generally from the same village, 

 petty town or neighbourhood, this is easy enough. Every member 

 must sign a declaration of adhesion to the conditions of the society. 

 The classes aimed at as clientele are those who having no 

 material capital, save perhaps some tools, yet possess a moral capital 

 in their honesty, industry and skill; those particularly in view were 

 the urban artisans, arid small traders and agriculturists were not 

 specially provided for; but nearly one-third of the members are 

 agriculturists. * 



The Banks in relation to Agriculture. SCUULZE DELITZSCH started 

 kis banks chiefly for artisans, tradesmen and such like, and without 

 special reference to agriculture : nevertheless they have done a good 

 deal for the agriculturists. He recognized that agriculture requires 

 loans of considerable duration, while his own banks were restricted to 

 three months ' loans, though with possible prolongations, and he 

 carefully distinguished between the needs which should be satisfied by 

 Real credit, and those for which personal credit would suffice. His 

 own formula was that " the term of loan should be in harmony with 

 the reproduction of the capital lent " ; hence, for all purposes for which 

 three or six months would not suffice, e.g., land-improvements, 

 purchase of stock, &c., in which the capital is more or less fixed and 

 is reproduced only by instalments, he considered that Real credit was 

 necessary, such as the Landschaften provide, viz., long-term loans 

 repayable by moderate annuities, and financed by the issue of 

 mortgage debentures to an amount corresponding in the 

 aggregate to the mass of mortgages held by the bank. He 

 consequently desired and proposed (1867) a law which should give 

 without special privilege to any institution which should provide 

 proper guarantees and fulfil certain conditions, the right to issue 

 " Pfandbriefe " (debentures), subject, howev er, to the control of the 

 State ; these institutions should rather be Co-operative associations than 

 Joint- Stock banks, the associations consisting of the land proprietors of 

 any given area. For all short term needs, " personal " credit as^granted 

 by his Popular banks would suffice. His projected law was, however, 

 not taken into consideration, and long-term credit of the Landschaften 

 type is still a desideratum for the ordinary German peasant ; long- 

 term loans up to ten and even twenty years being, however, to a small 

 extent granted by the RaifEeisen societies. * * 



